Microsoft launches API mapping tool for Windows Phone devs

Microsoft has released a tool to help iPhone developers port their existing apps over to Windows Phone 7. Microsoft officials described the new API in a new post on the Windows Phone Developer Blog:

“With this tool, iPhone developers can grab their apps, pick out the iOS API calls, and quickly look up the equivalent classes, methods and notification events in WP7. A developer can search a given iOS API call and find the equivalent WP7 along with C# sample codes and API documentations for both platforms.”

Microsoft also said “not to expect a mapping for all of the APIs, as the two phone platforms are built on different architectures and user interface.”

“For this first round we focused on identifying the one-to-one mapping when it exists. In the following versions we’ll expand the scope and anytime the concepts are similar enough, we’ll do our best to provide the appropriate guidance,”

At the moment, there are approximately 15,000 applications available now for Windows Phone 7, and this number will most likely grow exponentially when developers begin porting there apps.